1. Field of the Invention
An object of the invention is a method for parametrizing the greeting message of a voice mailbox.
The field of the invention is that of telephony and voice mail services. More particularly, the field of the invention is that of vocal answering machines used to take messages from callers when the called parties, who are subscribers to a mail service, cannot be contacted (or reached).
It is an aim of the invention to enable a user to parametrize/configure his greeting message by optimising the connection time of a terminal to the network.
It is another aim of the invention to enable voice messages to have image, video and/or text type information added to them.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
In the prior art, there are known voice mail services such as those proposed by mobile telephony operators. When a subscriber with a mobile telephony operator is unreachable, a caller seeking to reach the unreachable user is automatically connected to a voice mailbox. This voice mailbox then puts out a greeting message, after which the caller can record a message. The connection to this voice mailbox is necessarily made by a telephonic device, which is either fixed or mobile.
The greeting message can most often be personalised by the users subscribing to the services of the telephony operator offering the voice mail service. This personalisation is done by each subscribing user. To personalise his voice mailbox greeting message, a user set up a connection, through the telephony network, with his voice mailbox. Once the connection has been set up, the user must generally use his telephone keypad to inform the voice mail or messaging server that he wishes to parametrize his voice mailbox. The server then goes into recording mode. The user can then enunciate his greeting message which is recorded by the server. Once the recording is over, the user presses a key. This means that he has completed his greeting message. The server then sends the user the greeting message that he has just prepared, through the telephony network. This enables the user to judge the appropriateness of his greeting message. If the user is satisfied, he cuts off the connection with the voice mail server. If not, he uses the keypad of his terminal to record another greeting message.
This type of interface with the voice mail server presents several problems. A first problem relates to the obligation to use a telephony terminal compatible with the voice mail server of which the user is a subscriber.
Another problem is that the type of data transmitted to the voice mail server is limited by the capacities of acquisition and instantaneous transmission of the apparatus used to personalise the greeting message of the voice mailbox. In the prior art, the parametrizing technique is performed in a voice mode connection. The only information that can be transmitted then is the user's voice and possibly tones in the DTMF mode if the terminal being used can manage such transmission. In particular, it is impossible to transmit text or images, whether still or moving.
Yet another problem is that, during the recording of the greeting message and its validation, the terminal is connected to the voice mail server. This connection takes up network resources which can no longer be allocated to other users wishing to make a standard call. This also prevents the user from receiving a call from a person wishing to reach him at a time when, furthermore, his voice mailbox is not properly parametrized and therefore not in a position to receive voice messages. This problem is especially critical because a message can take one minute or more in addition to the procedure for recording it and because the first recording attempt is rarely the right one. It therefore frequently happens that ten minutes or more are needed to personalise a user's voice mailbox. This is detrimental both to the user and to the operator. The resources referred to herein are chiefly voice communications and data resources and exclude signalling and network management resources. For these latter resources, the problem exists but is less important.
The invention resolves these problems by personalising a mail service or voice mailbox through a preformatted multimedia message of the MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) type. The user produces a message in the predefined format on an apparatus that may be a mobile telephony terminal, a personal computer or any other type of apparatus. This apparatus comprises a program enabling the user to produce a preformatted message containing all the details set beforehand. These details include at least one identifier of the user, and voice data corresponding to the greeting message. These details are inserted in an MMS message which is sent, for example by Internet, to the voice mail server. The message can also be sent to a server capable of parametrizing the voice mail server. In the invention, the resources of the network are called upon only for the transmission of the personalisation message and after the production of the greeting message by the user. Compression methods can therefore be used for the greeting message, further reducing the need to call upon the communications resources of the network. Similarly, data pertaining to still or moving images can be incorporated into the personalisation message. Upon the reception of the personalisation message, the voice mail server extracts the information that it needs from this message in order to get parametrized according to the user's requirements.